Poilâne, bakery on rue du Cherche-Midi since 1932

Poilâne is a bakery opened in 1932 at 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Pierre Poilâne, a baker from Normandy, sold his miche here: a large sourdough round of almost two kilos, with a grey crumb, made from stone-ground flour and baked over a wood fire.

After the First World War white crumb was thought cleaner, and Pierre Poilâne refused to follow the fashion. He supplied bistros, cheesemongers and restaurants, under the house sign: “Here, Poilâne bread, made with sourdough, baked with wood, from stone-milled flour”.

His sons Lionel and Max grew up in the shop, and Lionel began his apprenticeship at fourteen. Lionel grew the house, registered the brand in 1974, built a bakery at Bièvres and opened in London in 2000. When he died in 2002, his daughter Apollonia, then eighteen, took charge.

On rue du Cherche-Midi the first bakery is still the heart of the house, which now has five shops in Paris and one in London. Everything is still baked over a wood fire. People come for the sourdough miche, breads, viennoiseries, pastries and the butter shortbread biscuits called Punitions.